Today was the first day of the three day mini tour in Rossland BC. After last weekends races in Silver Star, the APU team hit the road and headed the four hours east to our current venue called Black Jack for our final races before Nationals.
Leading out of the stadium
The mini tour consists of a sprint on friday, 5k skate on saturday, and a 10k classic on sunday. Throughout the three races, you get time bonuses for various results and then sunday’s race is started handicap style so the first person across the line wins the whole shebang.
Great to see last years teammate, Sam Naney, throwing down after recovering from mono earlier this fall.
Today’s race was a skate sprint that offered a lot of entertainment for the cheering crowd. There were a couple gnarly corners that allowed for some crazy falls and some pretty damn fast skiing out there. In the mornings qualifier, I was able to cross the line first, only .05 seconds ahead of my teammate, Holly Brooks. As my mom told me tonight, by the hair on my chinny, chin, chin.
APU boys getting after it. Congrats to Reese Hanneman for throwing down some impressive sprinting today- 3rd American!
The fun course made for some awesome heats. All throughout the quarters and semi’s I was able to get out of the start first and control the pack. The first half of the course was a solid climb before some roller coaster turns down to the bottom, a quick hop skate hill, and then some technical turns into the finishing stretch. The final heat, I sat in behind Perianne for the majority of the course before throwing down hard into the finishing stretch- winning my first NorAm ever. FUN FUN!
H. Brooks, Perianne and I right after the finish- Perianne excited for her secured spot to World Champs!
Holly Brooks and Perianne tied for second place
Thanks to Casey and Erik for some SICK skis, and to the huge group of people out the cheering. It is always so much more fun to sprint with tons of yelling on the sidelines.
Tomorrows race is a 5k skate. Results should be posted on www.zone4.ca
